Live from Sony Europe's IFA keynote

Things just got underway at Sony Europe's IFA press conference, here in Germany. President of Sony Europe Fujio Nishida just took the stage, and is talking up Europe's strong percentage of sales for Sony worldwide.

10:14AM - He's talking up the rapid change in technology, which Sony needs to anticipate, the ease of entry to the market, which creates more competition, and the need for Sony to "stick to our strengths." Two pillars: "a razor sharp focus on the viewpoint of our customers." And leveraging Sony's innovation capabilities.

10:16AM - 75 percent of all Sony electronics products to be HD-compatible by March 2008. "From the lens to the living room."

10:20AM - Announcing the BDP-S300 and the BDP-S500 for Europe.

10:23AM - Europe version of the DSC-T200 for Europe, with full touchscreen and HD out.

10:25AM - Now we've got Jeffry van Ede, VP of Sony Europe, to talk about DAPs.

10:27AM - "WALKMAN goes OPEN." Yeah, he's not even kidding. "We have listened to our customers, who want choice." We keep waiting for him to yell out "gotcha!" but he's keeping a straight face.

10:31 - Supporting, WMA DRM, non-DRM AAC, MP3, and dropping ATRAC support. So hot. Transitioning away from the ATRAC format, and phasing out the Connect Store in 2008.



10:33 - Next-gen Sony Walkman player support WMP11. There's also drag & drop support, and later in the year they'll open up the PSP's Media Manager for the Walkman.

10:34 - New A-810 series supports the new platform, but is otherwise pretty much the A-800. The new S-series supports the same things as the A series, but in a smaller form factor. S-5 series offers photos and music, S-10 series supports video as well. All new players support PS3 and Sony's boomboxes for ripping and transferring tracks.

10:37 - And that's it! Stay tuned for a few more pictures of the OPEN madness.

[waiownsyou @ Aug 30th 2007 4:31AM]

I'm waiting for the update that says, "LOL! WHITE PS2! ROFL!"

[Derry Quinn @ Aug 30th 2007 7:46AM]

Yeah!lol

[michael.mcgoldrick @ Aug 30th 2007 5:11AM]

so this means i'll be able to plug one into my ps3 and copy my music from the ps3 to the player? sweeet.... !

[webon @ Aug 30th 2007 5:17AM]

how often should I check this does any body know? and when is there going to be a electronics show in Tokyo? any body??

[Zak @ Aug 30th 2007 5:39AM]

It's about time! I bought one of their first ever MP3 players but it was a pain in the butt to use. Could not transfer all those naughty Napster files. I guess they must really be stuck to give up forcing their own format down our throats. Now just have to wait for my Creative Vision:M and Zen Stone plus to give up. The only thing I use of sony now is their headphones.

[qwert @ Aug 30th 2007 5:43AM]

This is VERY BAD for SonyEricssons cellphone Walkman Brand.

My guess is Sony is doing this because SonyEricsson had a SUCCESS with the Walkman brand while Sonys MP3players did sucked!

And now they putting a Good Well-known brand on shitty players.. Suicide.

[Poom @ Aug 30th 2007 7:21AM]

Hmm... That doesn't make any sense. I think this is absolutely awesome! It's time Sony realize the mistake they make by keep making proprietary platforms and now decide to open up their product. This is rather good to the brand.

[qwert @ Aug 30th 2007 7:38AM]

Rather good?

I don't know in what part of the world the Sony Player are "good".

They are re-branding the SONY players, that's why they throwing out ATRAC, ATRAC3+ and SonicStage, that will make out for the crappy software they had in their players, but the hardware as well sucks, now with the Walkman logo.

The SE phones with Walkman is Premium phones so I have very hart time to see Sonys own NON-premium Mp3-players become Premium players just for the Logo.

[Maff @ Aug 30th 2007 12:54PM]

qwert, wtf man!?, wtf??

[Andir3.0 @ Aug 30th 2007 6:47AM]

Notice the Penguin photo on the Walkman... So the Microsoft/Sony (Windows lockin/Linux openness) battle continues. Sony seems to be changing to a more open stance in all their products... this is good! (And it re-enforces to me why Microsoft got into the console business. To try to keep Sony/Linux from taking off in the living room.)

Though it makes me wonder how much Sony is backing/researching/helping Linux. Will we one day see PCs with a Sony branded interface built on Linux in a three way struggle with Windows and OSX? Do I hope for too much?

[Anonymous coward @ Aug 30th 2007 7:12AM]

Maybe it's not a "Linux-penguin" maybe it's the movie happy feet he's showing off?

[Lokiz0r @ Aug 31st 2007 4:59PM]

Surf's Up, not Happy Feet. Sony's studios made that one, so it's 'free' for them to use.